What is Personal Branding Photography and Why Do You Need More Than a Headshot?
Woman personal branding photographer in Seattle, WA Kristina Pearl Photography with client lifestyle wearing blue in studio
Written by Kristina Ebert of Kristina Pearl Photography
What is Personal Branding Photography?
Personal branding captures the essence of who you are and what your business stands for. It goes beyond the headshots and showcases your authentic self to create genuine connections with your ideal clients. By showing up as yourself you make your brand more relatable and memorable.
Your photos are a powerful tool to support your growth, create connections and share your story with the world. Your branding photos help ideal clients get to know you, then when they like you they will trust you with helping them or recommending you to their circle of people. KNOW, LIKE & TRUST.
A personal branding photoshoot takes a client through the process of working with you. Features the story of you and your businesses branding values. Every photo is intentionally taken to support the story of your business. To tell your business’s story we need more than just a single headshot!
Where do you use personal branding photos?
Personal branding photos can be used in so many places. Photos are the bait to capture and attract attention, while the supporting words will be the hook to assisting you to land a client. Sorry for the fishing analogy, you need both professional photos AND targeted words. A photo is worth a thousand words and as the business owner you have to guide those thousand words in every way possible.
Where to use:
Website: Update your About Me photo and replace all those other stock photos that were place holders.
Profile photos: Stop using a logo (unless you're a big company) on your Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn…
Email Signature: In Canva you can create an email signature to add to your emails.
Media Press Kit: for speaking engagements, Podcast guesting…
Business Cards: I know not everyone uses print cards, but if you do add your photo to it.
Guide/PDFs: If you have a guide you’ve created fill it with personal branding photos, once again replace all those stock photos.
Newsletters/Social Media Posts: Add your branding photos in place of stock or cell phone photos. Do new introductions and share something about yourself. You’re getting new followers and subscribers every day and not everyone has seen that old intro post.
Magazine Submissions: Has being published in a local city magazine been on your goal lists? Having professional photos to go in that print magazine is the perfect way to share your professional business.
Billboards: Sometimes you need to think BIG!
What is the difference between a branding and portrait photographer?
I’m sure you know a handful of photographers, you’ve probably worked with a few already for personal life milestones like an engagement/wedding, family, newborn, pet or even headshot photographers.
I don’t recommend using your previous portrait photographer as your branding photographer (unless they have a portfolio of branding clients). There is a whole lot of pre-work that goes into planning and preparing for a personal branding photoshoot. I’ve had quite a few clients come to me saying they’ve had “branding” photos taken before, but they had to plan the whole shoot.
What is included in a personal branding photoshoot?
A “Discovery” or first meeting call: This call is where we both get to know each other, start thinking of ideas and get a vibe check. If we are both the right fit to working with each other the real magic starts.
A questionnaire: A very in depth questionnaire with 30ish questions all about you, your business and your brand.
A Shoot Prep PDF Guide: This is 15 pages long with all sorts of photoshoot tips, but we do go over all of this in there.
Support with finding the perfect location, outfits and props
A Production Video Call: An hour long video call 1-2 weeks before your photoshoot where we plan your photoshoot from start to finish. We talk about each set, outfit, props and specific or general photos within that set. Are we having a “client” model on set? Then I’ll be giving outfit suggestions for them as well.
A Production Google Doc: This will be sent after the call and printed out on photoshoot day, this lists out what our day is going to look like
Photoshoot Day: You’ll probably be nervous on this day, but at the same time you’ll feel very prepared because of all the things we’ve done to get you ready for the day. I’m always an email or text away for any questions.
Posing guidance, don’t worry about how to pose yourself, I’ve got you!
Then photo delivery typically within 3-4 weeks of the photoshoot date
The key take away from all of the above is that you’re not doing any of this alone! I’m the knowledgeable photographer that is going to ask you guiding questions and tell you what we need to do next.
Seattle personal branding photographer Kristina Pearl Photography woman holding camera for headshot in studio.
Hi, I’m Kristina, owner of Kristina Pearl Photography, I’m a personal branding photographer and I work all over Washington from Seattle to Tacoma and beyond. I started my photography business niching into personal branding photography in 2020 (yes it was an insane year to start a business relying on in person shooting). It took me 10 years of being a hobby photographer and dabbling in every type of photography until I found the perfect type of client, business owners!
All of my focus, learning and education go towards personal branding photography. If you check out my Instagram business page (and my website), you’ll find so much great information about branding, getting to know me or seeing the amazing clients I’ve worked with.
I’m my own case study of being the face of my brand. I picked up the camera because I didn’t like to be in photos and preferred to take them. With choosing to be a personal branding photographer I had to also share who I was and why me. My energy is my own and unique to me. I had to practice what I preach and also show my face all over my website, social media and emails.
Another place to learn more about branding photography and me is to join my email list. I'm still working on being consistent here, I send out 1-2 emails a month, with occasionally up to 4. Also I write monthly blog posts featuring client sessions with an education piece, you can see full session samples on my blog posts.
Website: https://www.kristinapearlphotography.com/
Instagram (preferred social media of choice): https://www.instagram.com/kristinapearlphotography/
Newsletter: Join Email List
If you’ve been thinking now is finally the time to get photos of your business taken, let’s get on a call and talk. Never any pressure, I just want to see your business succeed with me or with another awesome personal branding photographer!
